Murphy Oil Corporation

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Murphy Oil Corporation third quarter 2020 earnings conference call. If at any time during this call you need assistance, please press star zero for the operator. I would now like to turn the conference over to Kelly Whitley, Vice President, Investor Relations and Communications. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good morning everyone and thank you for joining us on our third quarter earnings call today. Joining us is Roger Jenkins, President and Chief Executive Officer, along with David Looney, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, and Eric Hambly, Executive Vice President, Operations. Please refer to the informational slides we've placed on the investor relations section of our website as you follow along our webcast today. Throughout today's call, production numbers, reserves, and financial amounts are adjusted to exclude non-controlling interest in the Gulf of Mexico. Please keep in mind that some of the comments made during this call will be considered forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. As such, no assurance can be given that these events will occur or that the projections will be attained. A variety of factors exist that may cause actual results to differ. For further discussion of risk factors, see Murphy's 2019 Annual Report on Form 10-K on file with the SEC. Murphy takes no duty to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. I will now turn the call over to Roger.

Thank you, Kelly. Good morning, everyone, and thanks for listening to our call today. We continue to successfully execute our focus strategy, and Murphy remains steadfast with the goal of keeping a strong balance sheet through the commodity price cycles and plan to allocate free cash flow to reduce overall debt levels and an oil price recovery. Despite the record-breaking hurricane season this quarter, we still achieve free cash flow above our dividend. Our third quarter results were helped by the flexibility and strength of a multi-basin portfolio as production from our oil-weighted offshore and onshore plays continue to see higher margins driven by lower cost structure. We know that to remain in business over the long term, we must operate in a conscientious manner, protecting and supporting not only our employees, but the areas in which we work. As disclosed in our recent 2020 sustainability report, I'm proud to say we have proactively established a greenhouse gas emission intensity reduction target of 15 to 20 percent by 2030. We're further advancing our diversity inclusion programs and practices. A multi-basin portfolio provides additional risk reduction and flexibility. We remain committed to our focused exploration portfolio. and our partners as we see it as an ability to deliver company-making resource upside to our shareholders. On to slide three. Looking back on the quarter, Murphy produced 153,000 barrel equivalents per day with 86,000 barrels of oil per day. Production was significantly impacted by historical Gulf of Mexico storm season resulting in 12,000 barrels equivalents per day shut in compared to our guidance of just under 5,000 barrels equivalent per day. This impact was partially offset with stronger performance in our onshore business. We spent approximately $120 million of accrued capex in the quarter, including $19 million for the construction of the Kings Key floating facility. Our various oil pricing points traded closer to WTI in the quarter than usual due again to the unique storm season. This led to a realized oil price of nearly $40 per barrel on par with WTI. I realize natural gas price continues to improve at $1.78 per 1,000 cubic feet in the U.S. Further in the Tupper Montany, the ACO Henry Hub basis differentials have reduced and tightened due to improving market access from infrastructure build-outs and less capital spent in the region by our peers. I'm going to now turn over to discuss the financials with our CFO, David Looney.